Manager, Snake River Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation, (208) 383-2246

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Well, right now Reclamation is improving and enhancing its security and safety at three of our major facilities—Palisades Dam, Anderson Ranch Dam and the lower embankment of Deer Flat. And what we're doing, first of all, is installing some crash certified gates. These are certified by the State Department to stop vehicles that would try to enter a restricted area. They will be installed sometime this fall on the embankments of all three facilities. But they will be left open for public access at this time. (:37)

Manager, Snake River Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation, (208) 383-2246

MP3 539 kb

But I do want to emphasize, that at this time, at this current threat levels the gates will be left open. And eventually over the next two to three years we will be working with the local counties, other federal agencies to provide permanent alternate access around the dams—and then at that time, two to three years from now, we will close the gates permanently. I want to point out even when the gates are closed this will not restrict people from walking on the dam, riding their bicycle, or horseback riding. (:34)

Since 911 we've involved 264 facilities that have had major evaluations and we've used that to evaluate vulnerabilities and the potential consequences. During that time period we've expended roughly $84 million dollars in enhancing the security of different facilities that Reclamation is responsible for. (:27)

Its important to understand that each dam has been constructed differently, each one will potentially respond in a different way. And so you may see variations in the strategies that are at one dam versus another. They don't all exhibit the same types of vulnerabilities and its been these special studies that we've been able to conduct to give us an opportunity to better understand and propose to take different actions associated with Deer Flat, Palisades, and Anderson Ranch. (:27)